How to pass info to Marketo?

[Anonymous]

Hi Marketo

1. We have created a Marketo Registration Form, how do we pass registration data from our website app to this form to this Marketo Registration Form (hyperlink to Marketo form)?
   • a) Is there an online technical document which we can refer to?
   • b) If this is not the correct method, can you tell us the correct method to pass data from our website app to Marketo?
2. What information and at which stage do we need to pass information to Marketo if we were to have the registration details + voucher serial no. (which will be generated by us) from the registration stage?
   • a) How to pass this details to Marketo?

[Josh_Hill13]

So you created a Marketo Form...did you put the Form on a Marketo Page or use the embed code on your website?

either way, Marketo will pass the data directly to Marketo!

As for the voucher #, this depends on how you are generating this and how you want to use that data. I suggest looking at the Forms documentation again. You may need to engage a consultant to help you think through this.

also, developers.marketo.com has the technical documents for API.

[Anonymous]

Hey Josh,

Thanks for your prompt reply, 2 more Questions:

1. Our app intention of passing the registration data is to create "leads" records in our Marketo account. Thus, is this the correct API to use - http://developers.marketo.com/documentation/rest/createupdate-leads/? If not, may you guide which API would be the suitable match?
2. If the API is the right match (http://developers.marketo.com/documentation/rest/createupdate-leads/), how do we obtain the "marketo instance" and "auth_token" to use for in our account.

[SanfordWhiteman]

@Alicia C In [2], if you mean the voucher #s are generated on a separate server, you'd probably chain XHRs together: post to voucher server --> onSuccess callback --> post to Marketo server.

As @Josh says if you don't have a front-end developer who understands Marketo you should probably retain one. I try to give some developer help here but it's intended for people with at least some experience with JavaScript....

[SanfordWhiteman]

@Alicia C I see you posted while I was composing!

You seem to be committed to making server-to-server API calls, which may indicate an XY problem (narrowing in on a solution before properly expressing the problem and opening it to alternate/better solutions). 

If you have a registration API that can be used from the client side to create registration records, you may be able to use the responses from that API as inputs into the Marketo Forms 2.0 API, which is an in-browser solution that is more scalable and (generally speaking) manageable than building server-side code.

[Anonymous]

Hey Sanford,

So first and foremost I would need to confirm the correct API to test it, so could you help to confirm if http://developers.marketo.com/documentation/rest/createupdate-leads/ is the right API? Because there are several available endpoints for leads. 

Thanks.

[SanfordWhiteman]

I'm saying you're assuming the REST API is necessary instead of considering that your requirements may be better and more scalably met by the Forms 2.0 API.

[Anonymous]

Hey,

We dont intend to use Marketo Form and embed into our website, because we have custom design for the registration form so our intention is to pass data to Marketo via the API.

As there is a long list of APIs listed in http://developers.marketo.com/documentation/rest/, we just need to make sure we are using the correct API to fulfill our purpose.

We understand that our website has to do an API call to Marketo in order to write into Marketo the information we collect from users who participate in the contest in our website. Information to write into Marketo includes the following:
1.       First Name
2.       Last Name
3.       Email
4.       Mobile
5.       Unique coupon serial number (this no. will be generated in our website for every unique user)

My question is whether this "Create/ Update Leads" API - http://developers.marketo.com/documentation/rest/createupdate-leads/ can fulfill our purpose. If you cannot confirm this, please let me know who else should I approach.

Thanks.

[SanfordWhiteman]

You do not have to render a Forms 2.0 form to use the Forms 2.0 API.  Therefore you do not necessarily need to make a REST API call to Marketo unless you have exhaustively thought through your design, which I am quite convinced you have not.

If you insist on using the REST API regardless of how well this fits your situation, obviously the the Create/Update Leads API is the "correct" one.  Don't know why you need this confirmed, since the documentation is clear and the API is ready for testing.

The REST API has a maximum of 10,000 calls per day (unless you pay -- frankly, through the roof -- for more calls).  Bear that in mind when stating the scaleability and availability of your platform: a malicous user could use up your 10,000 calls in minutes. It's clear that the REST API is not designed for synchronous/interactive use (even the SFDC API, with much higher daily limits, is not suited for one-web-request = one-API-request situations).